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Wednesday, September 30, 2015

And the cute summer tree is done... though I did make a ton of mistakes on this one, so I spent a lot of time going back and fixing them! I'm hoping the winter tree will be easier since there's fewer leaves and other small elements on the tree.

I love how the bright colors look on the bold fabric, though! I did have to change the bird from blue to white because there's no way blue would have shown up on this background. :)

I'm itching to start a new Mirabilia after this, so I'll try to get winter done quickly!

Monday, September 28, 2015

Wow, switching over to something small and easy was just what I needed to get my stitchy bug back! I've already finished two of the trees and I've completed the trunk of the third.

Left to right: Summer, Autumn, and Spring.

And a couple of closeup shots:

The trunk is a bit tedious to stitch since it's exactly the same on all four trees, but I've been doing that part first so I can spend the rest of the time working on the fun elements like leaves, flowers, animals, etc, without interruption. These are great TV stitching, too!

Depending on how this week goes, my next post may be a finish of all four trees! :)

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

I did pull out Beaded Dragonfly Tile for a few days and made some progress, but I was quickly defeated by the flower buds... at least 15 color changes in each, with many colors only used for a single stitch! (Or in an extreme case, ONE quarter stitch! Agh!)

Friday, September 18, 2015

Really not feeling this project, though. It's my easiest WIP so it's the one I've been keeping at hand, but it's starting to wear on me. I guess I'll try doing some of the internal stitching and see how I feel about it then. But there's still so much left to do...

I dunno, it doesn't look so bad now that I see the entire thing. Finishing the border should make for good mindless stitching, since all the leaves are the same shape.

I'd really like to start something new but I was hoping to cut down the WIP list. Maybe it's time to pick up my Beaded Dragonfly Tile again...

Friday, September 11, 2015

Probably no pics in this post, unless I decide to show images of some things I intend to stitch, so this might be boring. :p

I've been thinking about SALs and goals and those sorts of things, and how they affect my stitching. Namely, I love the idea of SALs and goals, but I find that I like to rebel against anything that's telling me what to do. (Yes, I'm still mentally fifteen, haha.)

But without goals, I find that I don't ever finish anything, and while many stitchers are all about the process, I go batty if I don't finish things. I do enjoy the process, but it's discouraging if I feel like I'm not completing projects and getting them off my WIP list.

So I guess I'll reevaluate my goals for this year and see how it's going.

Surprisingly, these are all done except for Beaded Dragonfly Tile. I finally got over the problem with the beads, so all that's left is to stitch it up. It's not an easy project with many color changes on black fabric, so I took a break after fixing the beads and stitching a bit more. I feel pretty confident that I'll have it wrapped up by the end of the year, though!

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As for the other WIPs I carried into 2015...

Air ACEO - Butcher (HAED)
I've poked at this a little, but haven't made any serious progress. This is a very low priority for me and I don't think I'll be working on it more this year.

Fatum (Passione Ricamo)
I've done quite a bit on this one and it's my current focus. I'm pretty sure this will be done within the next month or so, depending on what distracts me. :p

Night (Wentzler)
This was barely started and I'm not even listing it as a WIP anymore! This is one of my favorite Wentzlers, but I'm kinda burned out after marathoning Angel Procession this summer.

Transcendence - Sessler (HAED)
Literally have not even taken this out of the bag it's in this year. This is likely the only large HAED I will ever stitch, I love this illustration. I'm just not up to it right now. :/

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Then I had some ideas about new starts for the year. I did get a tiny start on Chinese Garden Mandala by Chatelaine, but as usual, I kind of wandered off and did my own thing instead. The good news is that I've finished all those unplanned starts, so I won't be dragging around any neglected WIPs.

I'm pretty sure I'll be starting South Seas Mermaid (Mirabilia) very soon... ordered the beads I'm missing and I'm eagerly awaiting their arrival. Also excited about Willow Queen and the Raven Queen (got those beads too) but they'll probably go hang out on the bucket list for a while.

Speaking of the bucket list, I've edited that a bit, removing a few things and adding others. It changes around often, and I'm trying to keep it to something manageable and realistic.

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Really need to stick to my decision to not join SALs or round robins in the future. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of SALs and I get super excited about them! And then I fizzle out.

And I love round robins too, everyone I've stitched with over the years has been amazing and did a beautiful job on everything! I just find myself losing focus after the first two or three rounds. I'd prefer to be in a faster-paced RR (like mailing every 3-4 weeks instead of every 6) but I know that's not feasible for most people. I have a lot of time to stitch (not that I always use that time wisely!) AND I'm a fast stitcher, but not everyone is the same.

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Well, that was long and boring. :p
Please enjoy this random picture of my cat.

Wednesday, September 09, 2015

I'm so glad my wife likes assembling annoying things like this, because if it was up to me, this would forever be two identically stitched squares.

A friend gave me the chart for the matching fob for my birthday, so I'll probably make that soon. Unfortunately I didn't think to keep the leftover floss from this one, and it uses all the same colors. Oh well, it's mostly plain DMC so it's not a big deal, and I'd prefer not to use perle thread for the eyelets anyway.

Would anyone be interested in the used chart for this biscornu? It would be the chart and instructions ONLY - I'm keeping the leftover beads for the fob.

If you'd like the chart, please comment to say you're claiming it (so everyone knows it's already taken) and send your mailing address to rahenna(at)rahenna.com. US addresses only, please, I can't afford international postage at this time.